The International Data Corporation (IDC) released preliminary data yesterday from its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet Tracker. The study shows that total worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2012 are estimated at 25 million units, which is up from 18.7 last quarter. That’s a quarter-over-quarter increase of 33.6 percent, says the data analysis company, reflecting the total year-over-year growth rate of 66.2 percent of retail tablets in the US.
Guess which tablet is the largest part of those numbers?
Yes, ok, Apple shipped 17 million iPads during this last quarter, which itself is up from 11.8 million last quarter. The volume also outshines the previous iPad shipment high of 15.4 million from the fourth quarter of 2011.
“Apple built upon its strong March iPad launch and ended the quarter with its best-ever shipment total for the iPad, outrunning even the impressive shipment record it set in the fourth quarter of last year,” said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices. “The vast majority of consumers continue to favor the iPad over competitors, and Apple is seeing increasingly strong interest in the device from vertical markets—especially education. While iPad shipment totals are beginning to slow a bit in mature markets where the device saw early traction, growth in other regions is clearly more than making up the difference.”
Of course, the other tablet makers saw serious growth in the second quarter of 2012, as well, with Samsung grabbing second place of 2.4 million shipped units, and Amazon shipping 1.2 million units. ASUS shipped 855,454 units according to the data, while ACER only shipped 385,458 tablets this past quarter, making the PC company the only one with declining numbers. All the reset of the unit sales above represent higher than last year numbers.
There are two things to note here. One, the tablet industry is taking off, and everyone who is a player is selling more and more tablets. The second point of interest: Apple has sold way more iPads than anyone else that it’s not even int he same league. The obvious connection here is that iPad is driving tablet sales for everyone. 17 million iPads vs 2.4 million Samsung tablets? Yeah, that’s a huge difference. Even though the new Nexus 7 from ASUS/Google hasn’t been on the market long enough, it’s not likely it will see the kind of sales the iPad has seen so far.
IDC predicts, not surprisingly, more competition in the second half of 2012.
“In addition to major new products from Amazon and quite likely Apple, we can also expect an influx of Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows RT-based tablets starting in late October,” said Bob O’Donnell, program vice president, Clients and Displays. “If anything, there’s a real risk that people will have too many options from which to choose this holiday season. Consumers baffled by the differences between Amazon and Google versions of Android, or Windows 8 and Windows RT, may well default to market leader Apple. Or they may simply choose to remain on the sideline for another cycle.”
